Respect for the dead[edit]
The religion of the ancient Berbers, of course, is difficult to uncover sufficiently to satisfy the imagination. Burial sites provide early indication of religious beliefs; more than sixty thousand tombs are located in the Fezzan alone.[125] The construction of many tombs indicates their continuing use for ceremonies and sacrifices.[126] A grand tomb for a Berber king, traditionally assigned to Masinissa (238-149) but perhaps rather to his father Gala, still stands: the Medracen in eastern Algeria. Architecture for the elegant tower tomb of his contemporary Syphax shows some Greek or Punic influence.[127] Much information about Berber beliefs comes from classical literature. Herodotus (c. 484-c. 425) mentions that Libyans of the Nasamone tribe, after prayers, slept on the graves of their ancestors in order to induce dreams for divination. The ancestor chosen being regarded the best in life for uprightness and valor, hence a tomb imbued with spiritual power. Oaths also were taken on the graves of the just.[128][129] In this regard, the Numidian king Masinissa was widely worshipped after his death.[130]
Reverence for nature[edit]
Main article: Berber mythology
Early Berbers beliefs and practices are often characterized as a religion of nature. Procreative power was symbolized by the bull, the lion, the ram. Fish carvings represented the phallus, a sea shell the female sex, which objects could become charms.[131][132] Thesupernatural could reside in the waters, in trees, or come to rest in unusual stones (to which the Berbers would apply oils); such power might inhabit the winds (the Sirocco being formidable across North Africa).[133] Herodotus writes that the Libyans sacrificed to the sun and moon.[134] The moon (Ayyur) was conceived as being masculine.[135][136]
Later many other supernatural entities became identified and personalized as gods, perhaps influenced by Egyptian or Punic practice; yet the Berbers seemed to be "drawn more to the sacred than to the gods."[137] Early worship sites might be in grottoes, on mountains, in clefts and cavities, along roadways, with the "altars casually made of turf, the vessels used still of clay with the deity himself nowhere", according to the Berber author Apuleius (born c. 125 CE), commenting on the local worship of earlier times.[138]Often only a little more than the names of the Berber deities are known, e.g., Bonchar, a leading god.[139] Julian Baldick, culling literature covering many eras and regions, provides the names and rôles of many Berber deities and spirits.[140][141]
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